Taking Over the Clubhouse
by Kyuuseishu Setsuna
Summary: Without the ham hams, Cappy and Penelope begin to enjoy their freedom. However, they soon realize that their freedom comes at a price...CP Christmas Fic! Please RxR
1. The Big Mishap

**Author's notes: **I hope you all enjoyed the fluff at the end of Aishiteru. Now it's time to post this fic that I've been waiting to post for a long time. I announced this fic two years ago, but I kept putting it off because I kept missing my chance to post it. Now that Aishiteru is done and my mind is back on Hamtaro (I wish it was for Disgaea since I have to finish that fic soon), I can finally work on this Christmas fic.

So what gave me this idea? Home Alone, of course. It's my favorite Christmas movie, and so for Christmas, I'm writing a fic about what happens when our youngest ham hams have to fend for themselves alone in the Clubhouse. It may sound a lot like Home Alone, but I'm not trying to copy it (though you'll definitely be treated to the usual taste of clever traps). And yes, this is going to be a Cappy/Penelope fic. So here's my Christmas present to all of you.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Hamtaro, though I do own a couple of upcoming characters. I don't own the song 'I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus'. I do own Cappy's song 'Can't Wait Till Next Year', cuz I made the lyrics myself.

**Chapter 1: The Big Mishap**

It was quite a noisy night in the Ham Ham Clubhouse. Many of the ham hams were moving about, getting their backpacks ready. What was the occasion? Well, their owners have left them for awhile for Christmas vacation. When they left, the ham hams wanted to go on a vacation too, so they decided to take a trip to Winter Ham Ham Land. The trip was tomorrow and so the ham hams were frantic, searching for all their belongings. Arguments erupted as usual, especially between Dexter and Howdy, but it was nothing too big. However, one ham ham, the star of the fic, was having a hard time packing his belongings. After all, his big saucepan hat was too big to pack. He needed some advice. He decided to look to his role model first.

"Hey Boss, can you help me pack my hats?"

"Sorry Cappy, but I'm busy right now!"

"You are NOT! You're just gawking at Bijou again!" Maybe it was because he was frustrated, but Cappy should never say anything that would irritate Boss, especially when it concerns Bijou. As punishment, Boss pulled off Cappy's hat and smacked him with it.

"SHUT UP AND FIND SOMEONE ELSE!"

Cappy took this as his cue to leave him alone, and so he did. Oddly he enough, he encountered Bijou. The French girl ham was pretty good at packing things nicely. Maybe she could help him. "Hey Bijou, can you help me pack my things?"

Unfortunately, Bijou had to politely decline. "Sorry, Cappy but I'm pretty busy right now. You should keep trying."

"But I tried already! Could you at least give me a hand?"

Bijou, due to the overload of work, was getting a little frustrated with the helpless boyham. She did try to remain calm, but she told Cappy, "There are people like you who are in France and we call them 'Les Incompetent'!"

"Wha? Wait up, Bijou!"

Sandy noticed that Cappy needed help. She would gladly help, if she and Maxwell weren't so busy. She decided to turn to someone else. "Hey Stan, could you help him?"

Surely enough, Stan responded the same way Boss did. "Let someone else help him! He's completely helpless on his own! What do you expect me to do? Go and shake his paw and say, 'Congratulations shrimp, you're an idiot'?"

"I'M NOT AN IDIOT, JERKWAD!" Cappy retaliated after overhearing Stan.

"Oh, I'm seriously hurt by your comeback, short stuff!" Stan, ignoring Cappy's outbursts, brought his backpack near the top of the stairs and tossed it into the room below. "Heads up!" What he didn't know was that there was someone coming in…

"Hey, excuse m--AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Seeing the poor ham being attacked by Stan's bag, the ham hams below went and assisted the knocked out ham. Luckily, he came to his senses faster than anyone expected. It looked like a police ham. Shiny badge and uniform…yup, it's a police ham. The oddest thing about the ham though was that shiny gold tooth. It made a glint every time he opened his mouth. "Ow…damn…afta I'm done I betta go grab'a cannoli (It's a Brooklyn accent for those who don't know)."

"Hey, are you alright?" Panda asked as he helped the guy get on his feet.

"Yeah. I'm just'a comin' around the place to check up on da place. You know, to make sure if you guys'er have protect-shin durin the holidays. Seeing you guys are packin up, you must be goin away. You sure yur house's gonna be fine?"

"I'm sure it will be. After all, we made sure this place is safe from intruders, and we have Snoozer watching over the Clubhouse."

"Snooza?"

"I'm…right over…zuzuzu…" Snoozer yawned in his sleep as he waved to the police ham from above. "Don't worry…I'll protect the place…"

"I'm sure you'll…"

Meanwhile, Penelope was tugging on Pashmina's scarf, begging for something. Pashmina, acting as Penelope's protective 'sister', firmly shook her head.

"No, Penelope. You're not allowed to see the movie Howdy made."

However, Penelope refused to stop. She just kept on squeaking. "Ookwee ookwee!"

"Penelope! Don't say that about, Howdy! I'm sure that if Howdy says it's bad, then it's bad…besides, I think it was horrible anyway…"

"Ookwee?"

Over in another room, Dexter was packing his things. When everything was away, he sat down on his bed. Unfortunately, a loud sound echoed through the room…

PRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!

Noticing Howdy now rolling on the floor and laughing, he realized that Howdy had set up yet another prank. "OH HOW MATURE, HOWDY!" Dexter scolded him as he picked up the whoopee cushion he just sat on. "Very mature indeed…"

"Aw, c'mon Dex! Lighten up!" Once again, another argument was brewing. However, before it could start, the door suddenly swung open. Standing in the doorway was Cappy, and Howdy wasn't exactly happy to see him. "Dun you know how t' knock!

"Sorry, but Boss says I'm sleeping upstairs on the top floor again! I don't wanna sleep up there! Can I sleep in here?"

"I'm in here to sleep, not baby-sit!"" Before he could say anything else, a sound caught his ears. It was a silent, ominous sound of feet hitting the hard snow. Howdy easily recognized that sound. "That sound…it must be ol' Cutter!" Wanting to see if he was correct, Howdy raced over to the window. Dexter and Cappy looked at each other for a second before joining him near the window. When they peered outside, a lone black cat was prowling over the snow. "Yup, that's ol' Cutter."

"Who?"

Howdy, who knew the story behind Cutter, decided to tell Dexter and Cappy Cutter's story. "Ever heard of the 'Osakan Throat Slasher'?"

"No."

"That's him." Howdy said, pointing to the demonic feline below. "About five years ago in Osaka, he killed his owners and every pet on the block. Within those five years, he traveled all the way to Tokyo, killing anything in his path."

"So why doesn't the pound or something catch him?"

"He's never there when he's reported. His black coat camouflages him from everyone, allowing him to sneak up on them. When the pound arrives, they find heads scattered everywhere, whether it's a human, dog, cat, or even a ham ham." It was like a ghost story. Dexter and Cappy didn't exactly believe in these stories, but the cat did look as evil as Howdy described him. Finally, Dexter noticed Cutter doing something odd.

"So what's he doing now?"

"He's breathing all over th' ground. His breath then goes t' the decaying flesh of dead animals, transforming them into…more Cutters."

"Whoa…" Dexter and Cappy just kept staring at that cat. They've seen many cats before, and while all of them were scary, none were as frightening as this one. Suddenly, Cutters turned his head toward the window. His glowing amber eyes pierced right through their hearts. Not wanting to be the cat's dinner, the three frantically closed the curtains, hoping this was the last time that they would see Cutter…

Over near the stairs, Penelope just kept on following Pashmina, begging her for something.

"Look, I told you. You can't sleep with us tonight. There isn't enough room."

"Ookwee ookwee!"

"Penelope, stop bugging me and do something else!" Pashmina then turned away from her and went downstairs.

At this point, Penelope was so mad that just kept squeaking stuff upstairs. "OOKWEE OOKWEE OOKWEE OOKWEE OOKWEEOOKWEEOOKWEE!"

As Pashmina went downstairs, the police ham came up to her and asked, "Do you understand any of that?"

"Yes…" Pashmina said in a tired tone. "Penelope is saying something like 'You all treat me like scum! When I'm old enough and get married, I'M LIVING ALONE I'M LIVING ALONE!"

"Ah I see. Wait a minute…how can ya get married and live alone?"

"Dunno."

Finally after a bit of packing and arguing, the ham hams were ready to settle down. They obviously needed a rest.

"Is that everything?" Hamtaro asked them all. Everyone nodded in agreement. They were all so tired. It's time they had a break.

"So what do we do?"

"Anyone up for Ham Ham Karaoke?"

"Yeah!"

Few minutes some and crappy singing later…

"ENOUGH HOWDY! NO MORE! MAKE IT STOP!" The ham hams begged their current singer. They couldn't stand hearing one more line of the 'I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus' song, especially considering that this was Howdy who was singing.

"But it's funny!"

"HOWDY!"

"Fine…" Howdy groaned as a 'you never let me have any fun' quietly slipped out of his mouth. "Okay who's up?"

"Me!" A perked up Cappy exclaimed, standing upright and waving his hands.

"Hold yer horses! You can go now!"

Cappy happily ran over to Howdy and grabbed the microphone without saying a word. He is a child after all. You can't blame him for being all excited. A lot of the other ham hams liked his spirit, though some were indifferent towards it due to their reluctance to let Cappy sing. Either way, Cappy searched through the ham ham karaoke machine for a song. Since it was Christmas Season, all the songs were Christmas songs. Everything from the traditional 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' to more recently, and more obscene one's like 'The Twelve Pains of Christmas'.

After a bit of scrolling, Cappy found the perfect song. For everyone's viewing pleasure, Cappy was singing 'Can't Wait Till Next Year'

_When people get you down_

_All you do is make a frown_

_It feels like everyone gets you_

_They push you all around_

_However nothing is permanent_

_Your life will soon change_

_At the drop of a ball_

_Your soul will lift up_

_Look forward to a new beginning_

_And get off your butt_

_I wanna leave this place_

_I wanna be alone_

_I'm nothing but a kid_

_My world is nothing but my own_

_But give it one more year_

_Give myself time to cheer_

_Time to say goodbye to my fears_

_I can't wait till next year_

They had to admit. Cappy was singing pretty well. The song was pretty good, but even then, all the ham hams were laughing at Cappy. Cappy didn't know what was going on. He felt kind of hurt in a way. He did his best to sound as good as he can, and yet everyone was still teasing him. Was it simply because he was young? Suddenly, a squeak rang out, followed by loud shouts coming from two ham hams. Soon more ham hams started to shout. Loud crashes could be heard from behind Cappy. When Cappy turned around, he couldn't believe his eyes: Penelope was being pulled away from Boss. It seemed like Penelope got into a fight with him and now had to be restrained. Boss was alright, but he obviously wasn't very happy.

"You lil brat! What the hell is wrong with you!"

Pashmina was especially furious. She had never seen Penelope attack like that in all her life. "What's the matter with you, Penelope? Tell me why you attacked Boss?"

"Ookwee ookwee!" Penelope tried to squeak out everything. Of course, only Pashmina knew what she was saying, so everyone felt they could keep it a secret from Cappy. However, Cappy kept his own little secret from them: he could understand what Penelope says, and he was very upset to hear what happened. According to Penelope, Boss was taking two sticks and performing rude gestures, such as pretending to drum Cappy's head or making horns. Cappy didn't notice, since he was busy singing the song. The ham hams couldn't do anything because they were too busy laughing at Cappy. Of course, this infuriated Penelope, seeing that not even Pashmina would do anything to help, so she took matters into her own hands. Cappy felt so hurt that Penelope would do all that for him and yet...

Pashmina, on the other hand, thought of it as being childish. "Even if that's true, you can't just pounce on Boss like that. He's older than you and you have to respect him."

"And let him walk all over me like that!" Everyone turned to Cappy. There was fury in his eyes. "If it weren't for you guys, Penelope wouldn't have tried to beat up Boss, and now you're blaming her for that!"

Boss, not wanting to deal with the other little one, wanted him to stand down. "Quiet you little brat! This has nothing to do with you!"

"Nothing to do with me? You're the one mocking me behind my back! Why should I have to respect you of all hams?"

"WHAT HELL DID YOU JUST SAY?"

"You heard me, Boss!"

Before anything could be done, Pashmina grabbed Cappy and Penelope by their wrists tightly with the eyes of fierce mother. "You two, come with me upstairs!"

"Why!"

It was clear that both Cappy and Penelope were upset, but the ham hams simply needed time alone from them.

Pashmina sighed and forcefully pulled away the two little hamsters. "Say goodnight, you two!"

"'Goodnight you two'!" Cappy mockingly replied. Penelope squeaked something with Cappy at the same time. She probably said the same thing. Everyone else groaned as they left.

As Pashmina pulled the two away, Penelope squeaked several phrases. "Ookwee ookwee!"

"Penelope's right! You guys treat us like scum! You don't even care about what happened!"

Pashmina, though, wouldn't budge. She continued to drag the two upstairs. Unfortunately, she did not see the police ham in front of her, which caused her to bump to him. "Ouchichi. I'm sorry. Are you alright?"

"No no, I'm fine. I just wanted t' y'know, wanted to see if yur house was safe." The police officer looked down at the two little ones. They felt something awkward as he smiled at them, a glint of light shinning from his gold tooth. It felt like he wasn't a real police ham.

"Well the clubhouse has been safe no matter wh--" However, a few tugs interrupted her. Pashmina gave both Cappy and Penelope murderous glares to stop them, but they would stop. She turned to the officer with a bit of frustration in her face. "Excuse me, but a couple of hams here are out of line." She then grabbed the two and marched them upstairs.

The officer just kept grinning. "Don't worry about it! I talked with yur friends! Yur clubhouse is in good hands!" There was something odd about this cop. The funny thing is that only two ham hams knew it…

"There are fourteen ham hams in this clubhouse and you two are the only ones who make trouble!"

"Well we're the only being dumped on…" Cappy pouted. Penelope squeaked along with him.

"You two are the only ones acting up! Now get upstairs!"

"We are upstairs, dummy!" Cappy yelled back. Unfortunately, that's not what Pashmina meant. Pashmina pulled open a door that went into the higher parts of the clubhouse. The two gasped as they stared into the dark room. "The third floor…?"

Pashmina simply ignored their fear. Now was the time for to be more firm and hand out their punishment. "Upstairs."

Penelope, obviously afraid of the dark, tried to get Pashmina to reconsider. "Ookwee ookweee."

However, Pashmina wouldn't budge, no matter how much Penelope begged. "Don't be silly. You two are together. Besides, with the way things are going now, I'm probably more scarier than anyone, so don't push my buttons."

Penelope bowed her head. She was hoping to at least make Pashmina feel a little better. "Ookweee…"

"It's too late for apologies, Penelope." Pashmina said in her firm tone. She pointed to the dark room, showing that she wasn't going to show any mercy to the two. "Upstairs."

Cappy infuriated by Pashmina's reaction, took Penelope and stomped his up the stairs. He turned back to Pashmina and angrily exclaimed, "She apologizes to you and yet turn a cold should to her! That proves it! All of you hate us!"

Despite what Cappy said, Pashmina calmly replied, "Then maybe you two should look for new friends."

Cappy didn't seem to care about Pashmina's opinion. After all, she didn't even help him when Boss was fooling around. She only laughed. "I don't need new friends! I don't anyone, but Penelope! After what you guys did, I wouldn't be surprised if you rotted in a gutter die, cuz you guys suck!"

"Just stay up there and think about your actions! I don't want to see you for the rest of the night!"

What Cappy said next was something that he and Penelope would regret hearing, not to mention open the eyes of some ham hams. "I don't wanna see you for the rest of my life! And I don't wanna see the rest of the ham hams neither!" Penelope looked at Cappy. She didn't know how to respond, and neither did Pashmina.

Even then, Pashmina remained firm, like an unforgiving mother. "I hope you don't mean that. You'd be pretty sad if you woke up one morning to find that you didn't have any friends."

"No…I wouldn't…"

"So say it again. Maybe it will happen."

Cappy hesitated for a few seconds. He didn't know if he could handle being on his own. After that one time Boss told Cappy about the dangers of being a field hamster, Cappy made sure he wouldn't end up being alone again. The one thing Cappy kept thinking about was whether or not he had the maturity to live on his own.

Finally, after the long silence, Penelope held Cappy's paw and nodded. She believed in Cappy and could not let the other ham hams abuse him. Not even Pashmina. And so she turned to Pashmina for the last time and yelled out to her, "OOKWEE OOKWEEE OOKWEE OOKWEE OOKWEEOOKWEE OOOOKWEEEE!" She pulled Cappy into the room with her and slammed the door shut.

Pashmina, almost shocked by what Penelope said, solemnly went down the stairs. In the main room of the clubhouse, everyone seemed to have settled down. All the bags were ready for tomorrow.

Stan kicked back in his chair and sighed. "Finally, we're ready to leave. Thank god, and I thought I was gonna die from all that work."

"Idiot! You didn't even do a thing!"

Right when Stan was about to react, Panda noticed Pashmina's gloomy mood and asked her, "What's wrong, Pashmina?"

"Oh it's nothing…"

"I heard Penelope screaming upstairs. Did, like, something bad happen up there?"

Pashmina sighed before giving her answer. "Cappy said something about us hating him so I retaliated and tried to get him to shut up. Then he said that he never wanted to see all of us for the rest of his life. I thought that Cappy was overreacting so I tried to remain calm. That's when Penelope screamed at me. She said 'I HOPE I DON'T SEE ANY OF YOU JERKS AGAIN!' It just makes me wonder…did I do the right thing?"

"Oh, don't worry about those two…" Boss said from his big chair. "They're young. They don't know the outcome of whatever comes out of their mouth. Just give them some time. By tomorrow they'll forget about the entire thing."

Everyone agreed. Youngsters won't hold a grudge that long after all. Well, everyone agreed, except for Pashmina, who began to give Boss an evil glare. "You know Boss…it really was your fault to begin with. You just had to go ahead and make fun of Cappy while he was singing…"

"All of you were laughing along with me, so don't put all the blame on me!"

"But…"

"Look, Pashmina! They'll forget about it in the morning! Let's just go to sleep! Sabu is getting his friends over at eight to bring us to Winter Ham Ham Land, so we have to be ready. So remember everyone, eight sharp. And for the last time Pashmina, stop worrying about them. By tomorrow, they won't even remember what happened. Now go to sleep." And with that, Boss turned off the lights and let everyone drift into slumber land. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits.

Everyone except Cappy and Penelope. Up in the dark third floor of the clubhouse, they kept thinking over and over about what just happened. To them, this was a big scar that the ham hams left in their hearts, quite contrary to what Boss said. Because of their betrayal, only one thought echoed through their minds.

_I wish they'd all just disappear…_

The next morning, there was a loud knock on the door. Boss didn't know why the didn't alarm go off, but he soon remembered that he broke in his struggle with Penelope last night. He then decided to take a look at the clock on the wall. And lo and behold, Boss' eyes began to widen. Soon…

"GET UP EVERYONE! GET YOUR BUTTS OUT OF BED!"

A couple of the ham hams were a little reluctant to get up, especially Stan, who had a great dream. "Stop it, Boss…all the girls belong to me…zu…."

Boss proceeded with yelling at Stan. "NO YOU IDIOT! IT'S EIGHT O' CLOCK! WE SLEPT IN!"

Soon, the ham hams bolted from their sleep. "WHAT!" This soon led to a flurry of hurled bags, angry shouts, and questions asked several times over.

Over on the other side of the door, Sabu was beckoning for them to come out. He needed to get the ham hams out to Winter Ham Ham Land as soon as possible. "You guys said eight'o clock!"

"Hold on!" Boss shouted from the other side. "We'll be there in a bit!"

"You guys better get out here cuz--" Before Sabu could finished, all the ham hams raced out for the pigeons and doves that stood before the clubhouse, not noticing that they were marching all over Sabu. One by one, the ham hams chose their bird and boarded it, ready for their vacation. Sabu got and rubbed his head, groaning cusses and what not. "Next time you want a ride, make sure you're out on time. Now did you guys forget anything?" The ham hams shook their heads. It seems like they didn't leave anything behind. They got all their stuff and were ready to go. "Alright, then Winter Ham Ham land, here we come!"

Back at the clubhouse, two little ham hams emerged from the top floor. They overheard a commotion a few minutes ago and tried to find out what was going on, but there was no one there to tell them. Few minutes later, they began searching the place for any clues to the whereabouts of the ham hams.

"Ookwee? Ookwee? Ookwee? Ooookweee? (Translation: Pashmina? Sandy? Bijou? Where are you?)" Penelope squeaked as she searched the clubhouse. Unfortunately, there was no reply.

"Boss? Howdy? Stan? Hamtaro? Okay, tell me where you are, cuz this joke isn't very funny!" Cappy called out to the apparently absent ham hams.

After some frantic searching, they decided to check one of the tunnels. However, Penelope began to slow down and Cappy's fur began to stand on its ends. This tunnel always gave them the creeps, because they felt like something was going to go up and eat them. Soon that presence was felt again. The source came from a pair of red eyes and glowing teeth, coming from the shadows.

"Oookweee…"

"Don't worry, Penelope! It's just our imaginations running wild." Cappy reassured her. His bravery didn't last very long. Soon, a dark and ominous voice echoed through the tunnels.

_CAPPPPPPPPYYYYY_

_PENELOPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE_

"Yeah, an incredibly real imagination!" Cappy pulled Penelope back to the clubhouse and slammed the door shut. The two huffed and puffed, thinking about what happened. After analyzing all the observations they collected from this search, they came up with one conclusion. "We made the ham hams disappear…"

"Ookwee…" Penelope almost wanted to cry at this point, but soon a couple of thoughts came to mind. Same with Cappy. They began to hear familiar voices.

_Congratulations, shrimps, you guys are idiots!_

_No, you two are what we call 'Les Incompetent'_

_I'm gonna feed y'all to Slasher_

_You two brats are so annoying! Get outta my face!_

_Of everyone here, you guys have to make trouble for us! Upstairs!_

After going over what happened last night, big smiles appeared on their faces. It was an unexplainable joy. The one thing they've been trying to obtain has finally come. The one thing that all the other ham hams objected to. The one thing that was deemed impossible.

"We made the ham hams disappear!"

"OOKWEE!"

The clubhouse has officially been taken over…and boy, it was a big surprise…

Well, hope you like my Christmas gift! Look forward to the next messed up chapter. So what's happening in the next chapter? What happens to all kids when they're alone with no rules or no bossy people? They get high!


	2. FREEDOM

**Author's notes:** I'm glad everyone loved the first chapter. I'm glad everyone liked how similar it was to Home Alone, but I'm trying my best to keep it as original as possible. The basic idea is the same: kids fend off bad guys on their own using traps. Still, I want this to be totally original.

Last time, Cappy and Penelope were scolded by the ham hams and if that wasn't enough, they were left home alone. However, this newfound freedom has brought some unexplainable joy. What are the little rascals going to do now that they are free of their 'parent's' wrath?

**Disclaimer:** This fic is called a fanfic for a reason, so please remember that I am in no way affiliated with Hamtaro or Home Alone. I am simply a fan. Of course, I do own Gee, Wiz, and the number eleventeen. Oh and Cutter, too.

* * *

**Chapter 2: FREEDOM!**

It was almost a dream come true for the two youngest ham hams. For years, they were looked down upon due to their age, but now there's no one to mock or scold them. This time, Cappy and Penelope were truly free to do whatever they want without the nagging of the older ham hams.

The first thing Penelope did was open up the ham hams' stash of food that they have left in case of an emergency. With no one there to stop her, Penelope took a handful of seeds and jumped for joy as she gobbled them up. For once, Penelope could have a peaceful. Unfortunately, the peace didn't last too long…

"I'M FREEEEEEE! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Our other young ham ham, Cappy, had just found Boss' secret stash of diamonds of sugar. He happily shoved several of them down his throat, not realizing that it would turn him into an uncontrollable flash of white and green. Throughout his entire sugar rush, Cappy spent the time running all over the clubhouse, shouting to the entire world that he was finally free. Penelope didn't mind it though, for she would probably be just as hyper as Cappy was if she had taken in the delectable treats. She simply giggled as the green and white blur passed her several times.

After playing with everything, the two young ones made their way to Boss' room, the one room that was kept off limits to them. They remembered the many times Boss had warned them to never enter his room, often ending it with a demonstration of what might happen to them to one of the nearby ham hams (usually Howdy). Of course, since Boss wasn't here, they didn't have to worry about him getting angry, so they entered anyway.

Once inside, the two toyed with everything they could find. Cappy started off trying on several of Boss' helmets, reminding himself to keep one later. Penelope, on the other hand, found more questionable things. One of which was the movie that Pashmina forbid her to watch. She quickly placed that in her blanket so she could whip it out and watch it later. She also found other puzzling items, such as firecrackers, a bottle of wasps, some purple paint, and a full ham chat dictionary. She felt these would be important sometime later so she took them as well.

Meanwhile, Cappy, after fishing through all the hats, came across something that somehow did not match Boss' usual nature, hidden amongst the hats. It was a soft knitted sweater with a heart embroidered in the middle. He could not understand why Boss would have such a thing, but then he remembered that Boss was asking for true love last Christmas. He looked at the sweater again and felt that perhaps Santa wanted to fool around with Boss, but apparently Boss saw something special in it. Then, Cappy looked down at the sweater again. "True love, huh?" Then, before he could contemplate it any further, he noticed that the sweater was no longer in his paws. All that was left was a long thread of yarn. A little startled, he looked all over until he noticed Penelope rolling up the yarn. Starting to get weary, he asked her, "Hey Penelope, where did you get that yarn…?"

Penelope squeaked her usual ookwees. Able to translate what Penelope said, Cappy nearly fell over when her words finally sunk in. Apparently, Penelope found some string and decided to neatly roll it up so no one trips on it. Unfortunately, that string belonged to Boss' sweater. What was left was a ball of string. Cappy knew that Boss wasn't here, but if he suddenly came back…he didn't even want to think about it.

Hoping to get his mind off the sudden loss, Cappy peered through the room for something to get his paws on. Finally, he cheered with glee as he snatched a nearby slingshot. "Hey, it's Hamtaro's slingshot! I've always wanted to try this! Hey Penelope, wanna test this out?" Penelope soon dropped the yarn ball and happily nodded.

Later outside, there was an army of snowmen lined in front of the clubhouse. Glaring back at them was their opponent: Cappy. Replacing his swimming cap was a cowboy hat, making it look like he was party of a western movie. He kept giving the snowmen a fierce glare, waiting for the signal to draw. As the brisk winter wind flowed through the air, Penelope let out a small whistle as she pushed a snowball across the field, substituting it for a tumble weed.

Then, holding the slingshot steady in his paws, he took aim and…missed his target…by a long shot. "WHAT!" Cappy couldn't believe it. He took his time, trying to aim precisely at the snowman and it ended up missing? "Maybe my paw was just a little shaky…" Cappy tried again…and again…and again…and again…and…again. He kept his paw as steady as possible, to the point where his arm was like an icicle. Unfortunately, his aim was terrible. His shots often veered off to the right, to the left, over the target, hitting the ground, and almost even hit himself in the head with it. After his eleventeenth miss, Cappy finally threw in the towel and admitted defeat to the inanimate snowmen.

Before he could head back into the clubhouse, his young partner-in-crime tugged at his fur, hoping that it would get his attention.

"Ookwee?"

"You wanna try too?"

"Ookwee ookwee!"

Not wanting to disappoint, Cappy handed her the slingshot and let her test her aim with the snowmen. As she wound up her shot, Cappy tried to warn her. "Oh, hitting the targets is kinda tough, so don't be disappointed if you—" Before he could finish, he noticed that the first shot that Penelope let loose was a direct hit. Cappy was a little flabbergasted, but decided that maybe it was pure luck. However, he soon realized that it wasn't pure luck as Penelope continued to hit each snowman. Hit after hit after was nothing but a bull's eye. When Penelope hit the final snowman, Cappy fell over in embarrassment. Penelope had taken away the young boy ham's pride.

Meanwhile, the rest of the ham hams were currently riding Francois' friend toward Winter Ham Land, the icy snow land that they had visited over a year ago due to some weird prophecy concerning Bijou, but enough about that. As they flew through the many clouds, the ham hams began to notice that the sky began to pale. Everything was suddenly turning white, which didn't seem to pleasant for the flying hamsters.

Suddenly, Francois let out tiny chirp that only Sabu could understand. Sabu listened intently to Francois' eerie chirps. Then, Sabu finally got the picture and turned to other ham hams.

"Hey guys, how long do you plan to spend in Winter Ham Land?"

The ham hams looked at each other for a minute. They didn't exactly plan how long they would stay, so they didn't have much of an answer. Finally, Bijou decided to reply.

"Well, we were thinking of maybe staying two or three days."

"Um…okay, would you like to extend it to maybe a week?"

"Oh that's fi—wait what?"

"Yeah, I mean you get to play in the snow and—"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'EXTEND IT TO A WEEK'!"

Sabu wanted to avoid as much conflict as possible, but his attempt to slyly persuade them to stay longer at Winter Ham Land had failed. He decided it was time to tell them the truth. "Well…Francois says that she can feel a blizzard coming on; a really big one. It may start as soon as we land and it will continue throughout the entire week. What I'm saying is…you guys won't be going for awhile…"

However, no one saw this as much of a problem, especially Pashmina, who was riding with Panda. "Well…it's not like we have control over it. We weren't exactly planning how long we would stay there, so it's not much of a problem."

"Wow, you don't seem as stressed out as you were last night. Did Penelope apologize to you?"

"Not yet, but I'm a little sorry for being so harsh to both her and Cappy. I wanted to talk to them before we left, but we were all in such a rush. Once we land, I'm going to talk to Penelope and Cappy and then we can start playing."

"Sounds like a good idea."

"Yeah. It's been over an hour and I'm already missing Penelope. I hope Cappy is taking good care of her back there." However, unbeknownst to all the ham hams (especially Pashmina), there was a lone pigeon flying behind them…the pigeon that was supposed to be carrying the two tykes…

Back at the Clubhouse, Penelope walked over to her friend, who was curled up on the floor with his head bowed down. Penelope almost felt like not bothering him. She had already taken away Cappy's pride when she showed off her sniping skills, so she was a little unsure if this was the right time to make contact with him. Still, she needed Cappy's help, so she cautiously approached the young boy ham.

"Oo-ookwee…"

"I really do suck…" Looks like Cappy was still upset. "What the hell is wrong with my aim…?"

"Ookwee…?"

Knowing that it was pointless to brood over it, Cappy decided to shake it off and finally looked up at the blanketed girl ham. "Yes, what is it, Penelope?"

Penelope let out a sigh of relief, knowing that Cappy wouldn't let this get to him for long. With that all over, Penelope handed Cappy a hamster sized video tape and began to squeak. "Ookwee oooookwee!"

"Eh? You don't know how to work the VCR?" Penelope nodded in reply though Cappy didn't even need to know that. Every time Penelope wanted to watch a movie, she had to ask Pashmina since she had no idea how to work it. He looked down on the cassette in his paws. Labeled on the tape in black ink were the words 'Jokester's Sins'. Cappy remembered this title. It was the movie they were forbidden to watch. Just like Penelope, he was upset, knowing that the ham hams had obviously felt that they were too young to watch it. Luckily, without the ham hams to stop them, they were free to do whatever they want. Before heading toward the VCR, Cappy, in the most bratty voice, yell into the air, "Hey guys, me and Penelope are gonna watch that movie you told us not to see! You all better come out and stop me!" However, there was no reply. Only silence filled the air. To Cappy and Penelope, who felt oppressed by their superiors, it was nothing but music to their ears.

A few minutes later, Cappy and Penelope made it to the hamster sized TV…with several video cassettes in tow. Before accepting Penelope's request, Cappy had forgotten one small problem: he didn't know how to work it either. Penelope was a little disappointed, but both of them decided to find all the copies of the video they could find. That way, if they screwed up the first time, they could always try again.

…if only it could've been that easy…

"Okay, ready Penelope?" Taking note of the determined nod that the blanketed girl ham was giving, he knew it was time to get this under way. They turned on both the TV and the VCR to start with. "So far so good…" Cappy said as he heaved one big sigh. To most people, playing a movie would be a breeze. To Cappy and Penelope, however, it was like one big operation. Next, the two placed the video into the VCR. With all that finished, all they had to do was press one button…

"Okay, time to play this video." Cappy went over to the VCR and looked at the numerous buttons, each with an odd symbol on it. However, to Cappy, they all looked a little too similar. After examining each one of the buttons, Cappy turned to his little friend and asked her, "Do you know which one is play button?"

Penelope nearly fell right on her face. Feeling a little frustrated she ran over to the VCR and yelled right in Cappy's face, "OOKWEE!" jamming her paw on one of the buttons on the VCR. After letting calming down a bit, she closed her eyes and crossed her arms conceitedly, thinking why she hadn't done it herself earlier. However…

"Hey Penelope, I don't see anything…" This time Penelope really did fall on her face. It seems that she had pressed the wrong button. She checked the screen to see for herself and that odd picture of white dots fighting each other was still there. Hoping to impress Penelope this time, Cappy took the initiative to press another button. "There, that should do it." As a new sound filled the air, Cappy placed his paws on his hips, knowing that he got it right. Unfortunately…

"Ookwee…" Now it was Cappy's turn to fall to the ground. Like Penelope earlier, Cappy rushed to the front of the TV and those dots were still fighting each other on screen. The only difference was now there was an odd sound coming from the VCR. It was like the sound of a drill piercing through metal, and that sound was bothering the two of them. "Ookwee…"

"Okay, this time we'll get it!" With their stubborn attitude fueling their drive, Cappy and Penelope raced to the VCR and took turns pressing every button they could. They knew that one of those buttons had to be the play button so if they could press all the buttons, they would surely come across the play button. Well, it took a lot longer to find the play button than the two expected, for they had pressed numerous buttons numerous times and the video wouldn't play. Sometimes they'd hear the drilling noise, sometimes they'd hear the drill go in reverse, sometimes the video would pop, and sometimes the VCR would turn off altogether.

However, all objects, as inanimate as they are, have feelings, and if you touch them too much, they will turn on you. How did this affect Cappy and Penelope? Well, Penelope decided to hit one more button. This time, a new sound echoed through the air. Penelope thought that perhaps she had hit the right button. Unfortunately…

"OOOOOKWEEEE!" …a black object began to lash out at the young ham hams. The two dodged in time, but soon, they found more black objects coming from the VCR. They were like demonic tentacles, ready to take over anything it could get itself wrapped around. Suddenly, those tentacles lashed out again, this time taking Penelope with it. "OOOKWEEEEE!"

"Penelope!" Knowing that this couldn't go on any longer, Cappy rushed over to the VCR and tried to find at least one button that could finish off this monster before it harms Penelope. Looking at all the buttons left, there was a lone triangular button that Cappy and Penelope seemed to miss on their button mashing rampage. At that point, Cappy began to cringe. He knew he should've known the play button was the only one that looked like a triangle. Knowing that, he finally hit the button. With the press of a button, the beast had finally loosened its grip on Penelope and limply dropped to the ground. Penelope let out a sigh, glad to finally be out of that predicament.

However, when Penelope took another look at the tentacles, she realized that it was really the film for the video…which was all over the room. A great deal of the clubhouse had been covered in the film strip. She knew right there that they wouldn't be watching this particular video right now. Instead, she asked Cappy to take out the video and told him to put in the extra copy.

After finally cleaning up the mess, Penelope finally gave Cappy the extra copy. Now that Cappy knew how to work the VCR, it was time to finally see the video. Before putting on the video, Penelope prepared a great deal of snacks for them to eat. On the nearby table, were big bags of sunflower seeds and diamonds of sugar for them to ingest during the movie. With the bags on their laps, Cappy turned on the VCR…with a remote. When Penelope saw this, she felt like hitting Cappy over the head for not doing it earlier, but she decided to hold back on that. He did save her earlier.

A few minutes into the Jokester's Sins, Howdy's black and white movie, they saw Howdy sitting by a desk with some pocky in his mouth. Seeing the delicious stick in his mouth, Cappy and Penelope felt they should've gotten some of that too, but they were too glued to the film to get up. Then, on the small screen, they saw Stan enter the room with a fedora and a trench coat on.

Suddenly, Howdy's squinty eye began to glint as he noticed the trench coat clad ham ham enter the room. "Holdit right there!"

Freezing in his tracks, Stan began to introduce himself under his moniker for the movie. "It's me, Rattles. I brought the stuff."

"Leave it on da doorstep and get th' hell outta here!" Howdy ordered Stan/Rattles in an oddly un-Howdy like tone.

"Alright Jokester." Rattles said as he placed a package on the ground. However, before leaving, Rattles had one question for the cigar smok—er…pocky eating ham ham. "But…what about the seeds?"

"What seeds?"

"Bossman said you had some dough for me."

"Hmm…as a matter of fact…how much do I owe ya?"

"Bossman said ten percent."

However, another creepy glint, this time coming from Howdy/Jokester's buckteeth, began to give Rattles chills down his spine. Jokester was a very imposing figure and Rattles knew it. "Too bad Bossman aint in charge no more…"

"What do you mean?" Rattles asked in shock.

"He's taking a bath. He'll call ya when he gets up." Then, Jokester gave Rattles another creepy grin as he reached under his desk for his dreaded silencer. "Hey, I'm gonna tell ya what I'm gonna give ya, Rattles. I'm gonna give ya to the count of tree to get yer lousy, no good keister offa my property…" Suddenly, a dreaded clicking sound echoed through the air as Jokester arose from his desk…with a totally loaded Thompson submachine gun in his paws. "…before I pump yer guts full o' lead!"

Now fearing for his life, Rattles began to back away from the imposing ham ham, heading straight for the door. "Alright Jokester, I'm sorry! I'm goin!"

And soon began the countdown…

One…

…two…

However, before he could reach three, Jokester pulled the trigger, spraying Rattles helpless body with lead. Jokester watched the first several shots hit Rattles body just to see Rattles' face full of shock before falling to the ground. Then, letting the creepy chuckle echo through the air, he let the remaining bullets in his Tommy Gun pierce the now lifeless body of Rattles. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA! …tree…Keep da change ya filthy animal."

On the other side of the screen, the very same ham hams who felt they were old enough to see it were now scared out of there wits. Never once have they seen a ham ham wield a gun, nor have they even seen blood. Cappy had to cover Penelope's eyes the entire just to keep her from being too traumatized by the site. Before finally letting Penelope open her eyes, Cappy made sure to turn off the VCR. Breathing a sigh, he now knew that he definitely needed to mature a bit before watching this again. Looking back at Penelope, she was too stiff even move. Cappy tried to poke her to see if she would even raise a hair, but Penelope was able to get up. Not without screaming into the air…

"OOOOOOOOOOOKWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Penelope!"

"Pashmina, are you alright?"

Pashmina, seeing the worried expression on Panda, tried to smile. "No, it's alright. Thank you anyway." After about an hour, all the ham hams had arrived at Winter Hamland. Just as Sabu had said, snow had began to fall, which would have been a disaster had the ham hams not arrived earlier. At this point, everyone was getting all their stuff off the transportation birds. Acting as both an older sister/mother to Penelope, she could almost feel Penelope's thoughts, and that scream in her mind was one thing that Pashmina didn't want to hear. _Could it have been the ride to Winter Hamland? That can't be. She loves flying and always wants to be in the air. What is she so afraid of? _Feeling worried, she rushed over to Cappy and Penelope's pigeon.

However, at the same pigeon…

"Why do I feel like roasting this bird…?" An extremely angered Boss said to himself as he glared at the pigeon.

"Don't mind the pigeon!" Bijou told the larger boy ham, hoping to calm him down. "The important thing is to not let Pashmina know!"

"She'll be totally upset if she finds out!" Sandy added.

"I know, but we have to at least know where they are." Maxwell said.

"Yeah. Fer all we know, they could've been trapped in the clouds or fallen off or crashed into a mountain or…"

"HOWDY, YOU'RE NOT MAKING THIS ANY BETTER!"

After calming the young pigeon down, Sabu tried to listen to the pigeon, hoping to get some info on what happened to young boy ham and young girl ham. After hearing the timid coos coming from the bird, Sabu turned to the ham hams to tell them the situation. "Well, the good news is that Cappy and Penelope are safe." Hearing that, all the ham hams breathed a sigh of relief. It was at least enough for them to know that they were okay. However, there was still the other side of the news. "Now the bad news…it turns out they were left at the clubhouse…"

"WHAT!" Within a second, the ham hams began to worry a lot more. They knew very well that due to the weather condition, there was no way to return home. Furthermore, Cappy and Penelope are the youngest of all the ham hams. With the way the weather was and no supervision from both them and their humans, they began to worry that something may happen to them, and they already knew that they would be stranded here for over a week. This wasn't exactly a very relaxing image in their minds.

However, Boss, hoping to cheer the others up, began to nervously chuckle. "Hey guys, Cappy is with Penelope. He's old enough to take care of her. There's nothing to worry about…right?" However, that hope soon began to wane. Boss knew that Cappy only LOOKED up to Boss for being so independent. Last time, he scared Cappy of being a field hamster like himself, so he himself didn't know if Cappy could do it at this time.

And if that weren't enough…

"Hey guys, where's Penelope?" All other ham hams began to tense up as they heard that sweet familiar voice. They all turned around slowly and there she was; the last person they wanted to know about this mess. "Why are you all scared and crowding around that pigeon? Is Penelope and Cappy alright?"

All the ham hams looked to each other for a response, hoping to at least keep Pashmina alive for at least a few seconds. The last thing they needed was Pashmina to get a heart attack.

Unfortunately…

"Oh, don't worry, Pashmina. It's not like ol' Cappy and Penelope fell off ther' bird an' into th' ocean…"

"WHAT!" Not wanting to believe Howdy, Pashmina pushed passed the ham hams and toward the pigeon. However, just as Howdy said, Cappy and Penelope were not there. It was only the pigeon that was supposed to be carrying them. At this point, Pashmina couldn't say a word. Just the thought of Penelope and Cappy gone had weakened her vocal chords. Soon, that weakness traveled throughout her entire body and soon...

"PASHMINA!" …she fainted.

Nearby the clubhouse, a silhouette of a small truck was parked nearby. For a moment, it stood still until it finally flashed its bright light on the tall tree. Inside the truck, were two scruffy ham hams, one with curly fur on his head and one with no fur on his head. However, the one without hair had an oddly familiar gleaming tooth.

"I got da list of all da place we're hittin'. I've seen dem all, but dis one is just one big shiny cannoli!"

"Oh this is really gee, Gee." Said the curly haired ham ham.

"Oh it's more den gee, Wiz. I've looked at all da stuff. They're loaded. TVs, bags and bags of sunflower seeds."

"Toys?"

"To—are ya some kinda baby?"

"But Gee…"

"Alright alright. It's got toys for ya to play with…but much much more. If we tear da place apart, den we might find more. Of course, we'll need something to tear it apart, won't we?"

"Yup! Got it right here!" Wiz said as he tossed Gee their handy tool.

Gee's tooth began to gleam as he held up their handy dandy tool. "Crowbars up!" Clanging the two crowbars together initiated their mission: they were going to take over the Ham Ham Clubhouse.

Inside, Penelope suddenly bolted up from her chair. She and Cappy had fallen asleep after deciding to watch 'How Spat Stole Christmas' instead of 'Jokester's Sins' again. The elementary music, the snacks they were having, and that devil-like ham ham himself only helped the two fall asleep. However, that sudden sound had finally knocked the sleepiness from her eyes and caused her to quiver in fear. It sounded like the slamming of a door. Soon, she heard a few strange voices outside. Fear now getting to her, she shook Cappy so that he too would get up.

"Ugh…what is it, Penelope?" the green capped boy ham asked as he rubbed his eyes. Penelope, who was in such a frenzy, soon pointed toward the window. There didn't seem to be anything wrong, but soon Cappy witnessed two shadows passing by. The curtains covered the windows, but those shadows didn't look very reassuring. Neither did their voices…

"So are we gonna get in?"

"We'll go thru da back door. It may be bolted shut, but we can always bust thru dat. Much easier den goin thru the tunnels."

"You said it."

Penelope almost screamed, but Cappy covered her mouth, telling her that it would be a really bad idea for them to suddenly make noise. Cappy instead suggested that they do the next best thing: turn on all the lights in the clubhouse and run to the third floor and hide, hoping the strangers go away. Agreeing with him, Penelope joined him as they ran all over the clubhouse, turning on every light they could find.

Outside, before they could even touch the door, a light began to shine from the nearby window, surprising the two burglars.

"Gee, I thought you said they were gone!"

"Hey, they said they were leavin' dis morning!"

"Let's get out of here!" With that, the two hurried toward their truck and drove off into the night.

Minutes later in the third floor of the clubhouse, a white hamster began to roll out of the bed. He had lost the fear from earlier, now carrying determination.

"Why am I hiding under the bed? Only a scaredy ham hides under the bed, and I can't be a scaredy ham. I'm the ham of the house!" With that, Cappy left the room and proceeded with going outside.

Penelope, who was still very scared, felt her heart flutter when she heard Cappy said that. Even though she was scared, she was happy for the courageous boy ham. Soon, she heard the door close downstairs, indicating that Cappy was now outside. It was then that she heard him yell to the top of his lungs…

"HEY, I'M NOT AFRAID ANYMORE! I SAID I'M NOT AFRAID ANYMORE! DO YOU HEAR ME? I'M NOT AFRAID ANYMORE!"

Once again, Penelope smiled hearing Cappy's courage taking over. In her mind and heart, she too wished to be just as a brave as he was. She thought to herself to congratulate Cappy once he comes back from conquering his fear. However, that was not the case…for within a few minutes…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

…Penelope's face fell to the floor again as she heard the door slam and the frantic footsteps racing up the stairs, accompanying the scream of a scaredy ham. Soon, the empty space next to Penelope was replaced by the now scared boy ham.

"Okay, maybe I am a scaredy ham…"

Cappy had a loooooong way to go…

* * *

Sorry for not having the entire fic finished for Christmas. Hopefully, it'll be done by New Years, but I'm not promising since that means I have about only a week to finish possibly three more chapters. Not exactly enough time but I'll try my best. 

As for this chapter, I had many problems. Like I said, the last thing I wanted was this to sound too much like Home Alone, but it soon began to sound more and more like Home Alone. The hardest part was deciding whether or not to keep that video and whether or not to change it. However, I decided to keep in the end. Also, looking back at it, for some reason it doesn't sound funny. I don't know why, there's just something unfunny about it.

Either way, I hope you enjoy this second chapter as a late Christmas present. And yes, Cappy eating the Diamonds of Sugar was what I meant by high.

**Next chapter:** As Pashmina gets more and more desperate, Cappy and Penelope realizes that they will have to mature a little faster if they want to live through the winter without the guidance of their sempai.


End file.
